What Training Have You Done Today?

[petererg]

55min at 2:00. This was hard work today as I was really tired at the start. I am happy that I managed to hold on. Next week, the aim is an hour.

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
55:01.5 13,737m 2:00.1 202 994 25 145
6:00.0 1,503m 1:59.7 204 1001 24 139
12:00.0 1,505m 1:59.6 205 1004 25 140
18:00.0 1,505m 1:59.6 205 1004 25 143
24:00.0 1,503m 1:59.7 204 1001 25 145
30:00.0 1,493m 2:00.5 200 987 26 146
36:00.0 1,494m 2:00.4 200 988 26 147
42:00.0 1,490m 2:00.8 199 983 27 147
48:00.0 1,484m 2:01.2 196 975 27 149
54:00.0 1,503m 1:59.7 204 1001 27 152
55:01.5 258m 1:59.1 207 1011 27 150

[Dangerscouse]

5k test on Monday lasted all of ten minutes, this distance really is the monkey on my shoulder. One day it will clock, probably when I least expect it.

Where does it fall apart for you, and do you know what the main issue is, apart from it being too hard? Breathing? Too high a stroke rate? Is it a slow or quick decision to HD? I've had plenty of moments that were like someone flicked a switch and I HDed with no proper expectation of it.

What pace are you aiming for? A PB? It sounds like you're now focusing on it too much, and you need to register some no pressure, but still solid results.

Make it +3 pace and look for the moments of tension and mental doubts. That's when it really starts, not at the first stroke. That's when you remind yourself of who you are and squeeze out more pace.

I had a similar issue with 10k. I just couldn't crack sub 36, no matter what I did, and it eventually happened when I just worked around the issue rather than trying to use a head-on, brute force approach. Your intervals are showing you're strong enough at the shortish distances, so maybe you need to work more on 2.5k and over?

[Kerry1960]

Been on my feet all day today but was going to do a 30 min ss session before tea. After 3 mins of ss pace I decided to speed up a bit and turn it into more of a grey zone effort.

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
30:00.0 7,005m 2:08.4 165 867 24
6:00.0 1,378m 2:10.6 157 840 25
12:00.0 1,393m 2:09.2 162 858 25
18:00.0 1,403m 2:08.2 166 870 25
24:00.0 1,403m 2:08.2 166 870 24
30:00.0 1,429m 2:05.9 175 902 25

[alex9026]

Where does it fall apart for you, and do you know what the main issue is, apart from it being too hard? Breathing? Too high a stroke rate? Is it a slow or quick decision to HD? I've had plenty of moments that were like someone flicked a switch and I HDed with no proper expectation of it.

What pace are you aiming for? A PB? It sounds like you're now focusing on it too much, and you need to register some no pressure, but still solid results.

Make it +3 pace and look for the moments of tension and mental doubts. That's when it really starts, not at the first stroke. That's when you remind yourself of who you are and squeeze out more pace.

I had a similar issue with 10k. I just couldn't crack sub 36, no matter what I did, and it eventually happened when I just worked around the issue rather than trying to use a head-on, brute force approach. Your intervals are showing you're strong enough at the shortish distances, so maybe you need to work more on 2.5k and over?

It was about halfway and I thought not a chance I am repeating that! Ultimately, I was too ambitious, I went in at 1:45. In hindsight, a 1:48 like you suggest perhaps would've been an uncomfortable but manageable pace, and I can chip away from there. I'm enjoying the process again and days like that are a reminder fitness doesn't return overnight!

The 5k itself though, even when "fit" and workouts indicate a certain time, I couldn't piece it together. Which is why I'm not a fan of predictors... I used to run them regularly at say 80-90%, I know who would be in 17:10 shape and stick with them, unfortunately that isn't an option on the erg! I like the idea of your approach, though, and naturally more work around 3k+

[Dangerscouse]

1:24:41.3 21,097m 2:00.4 200 989 21 129
12:06.9 3,000m 2:01.1 197 977 22 122
12:04.3 6,000m 2:00.7 199 984 22 128
12:03.8 9,000m 2:00.6 199 986 22 128
12:02.5 12,000m 2:00.4 200 989 22 131
12:01.3 15,000m 2:00.2 201 993 22 133
12:00.6 18,000m 2:00.1 202 995 22 133
11:58.8 21,000m 1:59.8 204 1000 22 134
0:23.1 21,097m 1:59.0 207 1013 21 135

I nudged up the stroke rate as I had a few drinks last night and felt a little bit worse off for it

[petererg]

1hr steady row.

Time Meters Pace Watts Cal/Hr S/M
1:00:00.0 13,841m 2:10.0 159 847 20 130
10:00.0 2,311m 2:09.8 160 850 20 129
20:00.0 2,313m 2:09.7 160 852 20 132
30:00.0 2,289m 2:11.0 155 835 21 131
40:00.0 2,314m 2:09.6 161 852 20 131
50:00.0 2,311m 2:09.8 160 850 20 133
1:00:00.0 2,303m 2:10.2 158 844 21 128

[Jbrown1215]

Where does it fall apart for you, and do you know what the main issue is, apart from it being too hard? Breathing? Too high a stroke rate? Is it a slow or quick decision to HD? I've had plenty of moments that were like someone flicked a switch and I HDed with no proper expectation of it.

What pace are you aiming for? A PB? It sounds like you're now focusing on it too much, and you need to register some no pressure, but still solid results.

Make it +3 pace and look for the moments of tension and mental doubts. That's when it really starts, not at the first stroke. That's when you remind yourself of who you are and squeeze out more pace.

I had a similar issue with 10k. I just couldn't crack sub 36, no matter what I did, and it eventually happened when I just worked around the issue rather than trying to use a head-on, brute force approach. Your intervals are showing you're strong enough at the shortish distances, so maybe you need to work more on 2.5k and over?

It was about halfway and I thought not a chance I am repeating that! Ultimately, I was too ambitious, I went in at 1:45. In hindsight, a 1:48 like you suggest perhaps would've been an uncomfortable but manageable pace, and I can chip away from there. I'm enjoying the process again and days like that are a reminder fitness doesn't return overnight!

The 5k itself though, even when "fit" and workouts indicate a certain time, I couldn't piece it together. Which is why I'm not a fan of predictors... I used to run them regularly at say 80-90%, I know who would be in 17:10 shape and stick with them, unfortunately that isn't an option on the erg! I like the idea of your approach, though, and naturally more work around 3k+

5k is a rough test distance and torturous in its own unique way (aren’t they all?!). At the risk of spouting some pretty generic advice, I’d say that interval sessions like the Pete Plan 4x2k, 5x1500, or 3k/2.5k/2k are critical to developing 5k speed and mental comfort/confidence spending extended time at or faster than the lower splits required. I believe you did 5x1500 recently around 1:42/1:43 — that would suggest that a sub-1:45 5k is within reach already.

I struggled with the 5k mightily last summer and had to do a few of them in a relatively short amount of time to “demystify” them for myself.

Stay the course, you will get there!

[Sakly]

As some of you might know, I had my first race day ever yesterday at the German nationals in Kettwig.
I registered spontaneous two weeks before for the 500m and 1000m. Without specific training, I first wanted to get to know how it all works, feel the atmosphere and meet some people
Anyway, I was motivated to attack my PBs in both distances and my mind was really sharpened the nearer the day came. Unfortunately, my body had other plans
I woke up at 2:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. Probably my body is fighting some viruses or bugs my daughter brought up last week. She is ill for a week now, but I had no symptoms (yet). Resting HR elevated by about 10bpm recently...
I got up at 4:30, had some light breakfast (first start time was 9:10 - really not my time usually!) and two coffee. Location was nearby, 40min away, so relaxed arrival at ~8:00.
I was not thinking about my feeling at all. Had a look at the location, where to find all the things needed (rest room, race office, warmup ergs). Got my start cards and changed my clothes to warmup. After some low rate strokes for 10min I did some bursts to see where I'm at power wise, but at this point I knew it would get messy

First race was 500m.
I sat down on the erg, focused, some strokes to setup DF. Few deep breaths. Screens showed "stop rowing", so I knew start was near. Didn't feel ready. Grabbed the handle. Then I saw left and right peeps on the erg started to row The signal wasn't working, so I got a late start by ca. 1.5s (a view into stroke data showed this afterwards). I started pulling 1:20-21s, soon pace ran out of my control and started to decline more or less linearly until 1:30s at the end. Due to the missed start I got a 1:26.9 and finished 3rd. My lungs were on fire, much harder than usual for a 500, but adrenaline did a great job
1:26.0 being my current PB, I was absolutely fine with the outcome under these circumstances, despite finished below expectations! I needed to rethink expected results early...
Took an hour to get my lungs working well again, but HR didn't settle down nicely. Even an hour later I saw HR hovering into 100s

Next race was 1000m, ca. 2h after the 500.
No warmup erg was free, so I did a few strokes on the skierg from the concept 2 merch. Not much, but I was fine with it.
There were many races in parallel for the 1000m, so many people were waiting for it to start. It was a very small corridor and it took probably about 15min until we could approach the ergs, so cooling down was a thing.
Anyway, with the bad start experience, I had a much stronger focus on the start for the 1000m and it was on point. Started pulling into 1:27 and let the pace settle into 1:32s which was my target pace (initially with my target of 3:05). This plan worked until reaching 250m, then pace already faded into 1:34s to the middle and then fading took over and I needed to hang on as long as possible. The middle of the race was also the point of time, when I realized Tobias Stöhr was in the race as well and a few meters behind Tried to hold him behind me, but he had other plans and saved energy for a strong finish with a sprint, when I hang on for dear life! My lungs weren't working at all for the last 150m, but I was able to get the splits back down to 1:33/4s - don't ask me how
Finished 4th with a 3:09.0 (stroke data). Given my PB of 3:07.8 this is a great result again.
Not disappointed at all, even though I couldn't get any new PB. My body wasn't ready and it will happen at any other point of time. Now taking some rest to recover and then back to prep the marathon in March!

[iain]

Great result Sascha. Bad luck on 500 start. It is always bad as clock starts on "row" so you are behind from the start as opposed to normal TTs when start when you pull. THat must have really blown your strategy. Great 1k given limited rest from 500 and no real warm up.

[MPx]

Wow! Well done Sascha - as Iain says the race start will always rob you of a second (even if you go on "row") which is a huge penalty on a short piece. You had much lower fade in both races than I'd have planned for, particularly the 1k - much stronger than just hanging on. Great that you enjoyed it and got some reward.

[p_b82]

As some of you might know, I had my first race day ever yesterday at the German nationals in Kettwig.

Congrats - to have done that with little prep before, and being under the weather too - very impressive!

[Dangerscouse]

As some of you might know, I had my first race day ever yesterday at the German nationals in Kettwig.

Very good results Sascha, especially in a race environment and not feeling 100%. Racing can be the toss of a coin if you overdo it with adrenaline or just letting the occasion get to you (positively or negatively), so these could be considered unofficial PBs.

Tobias is a very hard man to beat, so I'm not surprised he had something left in the tank. He's a very impressive erger

[Dangerscouse]

1:02:27.1 15,000m 2:04.9 180 918 19 120
7:44.5 1,875m 2:03.8 184 933 20 117
7:46.5 3,750m 2:04.4 182 925 20 119
7:49.3 5,625m 2:05.1 179 914 19 119
7:49.7 7,500m 2:05.2 178 913 19 119
7:48.7 9,375m 2:04.9 179 916 19 122
7:49.6 11,250m 2:05.2 178 913 19 123
7:48.7 13,125m 2:04.9 179 916 18 123
7:50.1 15,000m 2:05.3 178 911 19 122

This felt like I was rowing with the handbrake on and df1000 and I could happily have stopped after 5k and chalked it up to a bad day. I somehow managed to convince myself to keep going.

Preceded by an early morning 5k walk.

[KeithT]

17:50.3 5,000m 1:47.0 285 1282 28 158
3:33.8 1,000m 1:46.9 287 1286 29 150
3:33.5 2,000m 1:46.7 288 1290 29 155
3:34.9 3,000m 1:47.4 282 1270 28 158
3:35.6 4,000m 1:47.8 279 1261 28 162
3:32.5 5,000m 1:46.2 292 1304 29 168

CTC. It's a bit slower than I hoped for, but it was good exposure to some more intense stuff that I've been neglecting for too long. I was too cautious at halfway and let my inner chimp win for too long, but I did manage to get a grip for the last 300m, ending on 1:38 pace.

Good result with strong finish.I can understand it not being what you wanted but you haven't done a 5K TT for a while so was prob hard to judge.

[KeithT]

As some of you might know, I had my first race day ever yesterday at the German nationals in Kettwig.
I registered spontaneous two weeks before for the 500m and 1000m. Without specific training, I first wanted to get to know how it all works, feel the atmosphere and meet some people
Anyway, I was motivated to attack my PBs in both distances and my mind was really sharpened the nearer the day came. Unfortunately, my body had other plans

Great results, especially considering the circumstances. I remember my first 1K in person competition - I noticed a big lag in the start despite pulling on command the clock had to have started like a second before and it messes with your mind. The result for you was impressive considering you did a 500 TT just a couple hours before. The 500 and 1K aren't your best distances either, so all things considered it was a good day.